Last Saturday, I was assigned as the tournament organizer of our weekly local Saturday Standard event and took this opportunity to ask our fellow Ilonggo MTG players on what are their take on the upcoming new set, The Brother’s War, in terms of the favorite cards and other notables for the Standard format. It has been a while since I did this kind of video interview and it is a good thing that it was timing just weeks before the set is released.

Most were quite hesitant to be interviewed, but I told them that this is just for fun and that any opinion on the new cards and abilities will not be considered incorrect. I also covered some highlight matchups that led to the final Top 4 in the rankings of the tournament.

Here below is the combined video I made and uploaded to my YT channel.

Hey all, it was a busy weekend with some instant plans that replaced the supposedly things to do on those days. The initial plan was to visit the Magic: the Gathering EDH Commander local tournament scheduled on a Saturday, but the ending was a drinking session instead with old friends.

Anywho, I just went to check on the EDH Commander group chat on Facebook as to what happened during their event and they posted pics of them having fun while playing and interacting with their favorite Commander decks. This is a good sign as to the chance of the face-to-face tournaments coming back here in Iloilo City. I also saw several events posted in Magic: the Gathering FB groups that were held in a similar scenario.

I talked with Rei last week about his plans and he said the next local event will be the Crimson Vow Prerelease on December 1st week. Based on those, and if the alert level will still be maintained at a minimum, then the possibility of a year-ender event is possible. We just need to update our physical decks by that time and hoping that the new sets’ products will arrive on schedule.

I will wrap up this post with short booster packs opening video which I purchased when I visited Rei’s place last week. Enjoy and until the next local Magic: the Gathering scene update.

I am hoping that this weekend’s scheduled Theros Beyond Death Prerelease will be held with no delays whatsoever. Why am I saying this? That is because of the recent disaster that struck the country last Sunday, the eruption of the Taal volcano. The local and international flights were canceled that night as the airport was within the range of the ashfall. It was sudden and unexpected but I am hoping that all of those affected can safely evacuate and be taken care of by the concerned agencies. Our local prerelease is scheduled this Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. 

As for those who plan to go to their local prerelease, there are a few things of note, especially to the first-timers. 

Read about the new cards.The Theros Beyond Death full spoiler has been published since last Friday and the players got a chance to read through each card in the set, getting familiar with each ability and mechanic, and knowing which ones are doable to use in their decks.

Prepare card sleeves, containers, and dices. It is better to prepare these materials beforehand so that you can protect the cards you’ve opened as well as for easy shuffling and life tracking uses. 

Do not be afraid to ask questions. whether it is the game rules or combat scenario, people are there to answer your inquiry, especially your local MTG judge. They are accommodating to get you to know more about the gameplay, how card interactions can turn out, and also to avoid card misinterpretations. 

Stay refreshed. That is, bring water and snacks if your local game store does not have them. Bring energy drinks if you have to. A typical prerelease can last about five to six hours with deck construction and four rounds of gameplay. Do not forget to eat your lunch if the schedule is in the early afternoon.

Have fun. Enjoy each moment of the prerelease starting from deck construction up until the last match of the last round. Playing to win might be your main goal but the learning experience is still the basic benefit of joining this event. 

Enjoy your Theros Beyond Death prerelease guys. 

Here is a video I made when decided to cover the Top 8 matchups of the Day 1 Standard of the Magic: the Gathering Iloilo Community Year-ender Tournament. I created it using the YouCut editor app. There were about 20 participants which I think is still a good turnout despite the busy schedule of the players. There are specific matches recorded in the video and were also streamed live on Facebook at the MTG Iloilo page last Saturday.

Check out the video below. I hope you like the edits.

The Top 4 decks after the quarterfinals were two Gruul decks, one Simic Ramp and one Golgari Sacrifice. The aggro decks took some excellent job in pressuring these ramp and Oven sacrifice decks. The Finals’ match was the mirror match of the Gruul aggro but they decided to just split the prize and declare one as the winner.

Over the next coverage videos, I will correct the current mistakes and probably learn the proper angles and views and also on the editing process in order to produce a more presentable output.

There are not much special or big time tourney scheduled for this week aside from the fact that the recent Standard banning will be implemented by tomorrow. As I have mentioned in the last blog post, the players have already adjusted their deck setup as the Field of the Dead had already been exiled or left the format. Tomorrow’s Friday Night Magic will be at Pro Rei’s place and to those who aren’t familiar with the location, it is at A3 Bookstore that is in the street between Robinson’s Mabini street wing and Fuentes street.

Just check out on this map screenshot below. It is difficult to explain the details actually.

Here below are the detailed schedule of the tourneys:

October 25, 2019
Friday Night Magic
Standard format, 100php reg. fee.
Top 4 gets an promo packs and regular ELD booster pack prizes
Event Starts 6:15pm.

October 26, 2019
Saturday Standard
100php reg. fee.
Top 4 gets an promo packs and regular ELD booster pack prizes, or beyond that basing on the player attendance
Event starts at 3:00pm.

Kitakits!

I was able to drop by the local game store Nth Dimension, during their Wednesday Night Magic tournament. My Teammate opted not to play that night so I just went to check on the people’s deck builds if there were any new archetypes they were testing. I am glad that they did. A few of the decks adjusted their list regarding the latest tournament results online, major events in other cities, and maybe posted on the MTGTop8 website. The two notable archetypes were Sultai Flash and Bant Scapeshift Ramp.

Here are the event results posted and the ranking after the Swiss rounds.

MTG Iloilo Tournament Results
Wednesday Night Magic (July 31, 2019)
Top 5:
1st, Christian (Sultai Flash)
2nd, Nonoy (Mono Red)
3rd, Speedy (Bant Ramp)
4th, Mandoy (Jund Dinos)
4th, Gus (Grixis Control)

14 players, 4 rounds gameplay

The Gameswalker 50k trial tournaments here for the Iloilo City local gamestores were held last week with the purpose of giving the first-place winners a first-round bye at the main event. The organizers have allotted two slots for each game store which is valid in accordance to the number of players in the area.

The first trial event was held at Nth Dimension last Wednesday night at was attended by 18 players. The winners’ decision was ranking-based after Swiss rounds and it was Ruel Dolar playing Gruul aggro that emerged as the winner of the tournament. I have known him as a long-time pilot of this archetype but his build is a little spicier than that of a typical list. He would include one-ofs of his favorite creature or spell that would gain him a huge advantage in certain situations.

Saturday Trials tournament was at Pro Reis Place with 18 players in attendance. The first place in rank after the five rounds of Swiss was Christian Atienza with Simic Flash. He outlasted his Esper Hero opponents in grueling matches with the freebie Wolf tokens from Nightpack Ambusher protected by the sideboard card Veil of Summer. My teammate Ace played the same archetype but only finished in 3rd place. Anyway, we are looking for adjustments in the metagame again in the coming weeks as the new archetypes make their mark in Standard.

Congratulations to the two winners of the first batch of Gameswalker Trials Iloilo.  

Two local game stores cater the weekly Magic: the Gathering jive on Standard tournaments: Rei Place and Nth Dimension Comics and Games. To note, this week will be the first week of the Gameswalker Trials wherein the first place will get the first-round bye at the main event in September.

Here below are the details of the local tourneys this week.

Wednesday Night Gameswalker 50k Trials at Nth Dimension: Comics and Games
July 17, 2019
Standard Format
150 entry fee
Prizes:
1st place GW pass (1 bye)
2nd-4th M20 booster packs
Event starts 6:30pm.

Friday Night Magic at Pro Rei’s Place
July 19, 2019
Standard format
100 Reg. fee, Promo Packs and M20 Booster prizes
Starts 6:15pm

Saturday Gameswalker 50k Trials at Pro Reis Place
July 20, 2019
Standard format
150 reg. fee
1st placer gets a first round bye at the main event, M20 boosters
2nd to 4th gets Promo packs & M20 boosters packs
Starts 2:45pm

Our local game store Pro Reis Place is stepping up in terms of tournament prizes. For the upcoming War of the Spark Prerelease, TO Rei has decided to be giving two Prerelease passes as prizes for this Saturday’s Standard tournament. It would require at least 18 players though, which is quite achievable since it is the Holy Week holiday this week. On regular Saturdays, the attendance reach at least 16 players.

Here below are the details of the PR Pass tournament:

War of the Spark Prerelease Pass tournament

Saturday, April 20, 2019 at 2:30pm
150 registration fee
Top 2 Players after Swiss gets the PR Pass

(minimum of 18 players)

The planned Magic: the Gathering tournaments this weekend is for the Standard Showdown type of events. Aside from the usual Friday Night Magic, these are usually highly attended by the local players because of the special showdown boosters which can contain foil versions of priced cards in the format. One time a friend opened a foil Karn, Scion of Urza which he got to sold at P3000 online. The possibilities are endless for the hopefuls so most are usually taking the time to join these tournaments. Anyhow, here is the detailed schedule for this week:

Standard Showdown at Critical Hit: Comics and Games, Festive Mall
Tuesday, Feb. 26th, 2019
Registration Fee: 100php
Starts 6:30pm

Standard Showdown at Nth Dimension: Comics and Games
Wednesday, Feb. 27th, 2019
Registration Fee: 100php
Starts 6:30pm

Standard Showdown at Pro Reis Place
Saturday, March 2nd
Registration Fee: 100php
Starts 3:00pm

See you at the events! 

The recent prerelease on Ravnica Allegiance went very basic because of the major reason that the Prerelease products got delayed in its releasing from the Bureau of Customs. Instead, the distributor Neutral Grounds has sent the local gamestores regular RNA Booster boxes to compensate to the scheduled Prerelease weekend last January 19^th and 20^th. We had no choice but to push through as most had already reserved that day expecting to play first-hand the new set with the proper products. Anywho, Rei got to start his event at around 3:30pm and informed that there were lesser participants than the intended. I had to do some important stuff that time so I just inquired later on that evening of the outcome.

Come Sunday, I went to Critical Hit at Festive Mall to join the scheduled Prerelease that afternoon. I arrived 5 minutes last past 1:00pm and the players were already starting to build their decks. There were about 14 participants in total. I then immediately paid the reg. fee, grabbed my six booster packs and went to a vacant table to build my deck. After twenty minutes of pondering and sorting through my card pile, I decided to go Gruul with a Splash of Blue for some combat trick spells. Unfortunately, I ended up with just a 2-2 record, losing to two Rakdos aggro decks in Round 3 and 4. Anyhow, I was able to value my Prerelease registration as I was able to open a Domri, Blood Crypt and Kaya’s Wrath. I remembered the finals for the 4-0 record was a mirror match between Mardu decks, one of which defeated me in Round 3.

Lastly, I took some pics during my vacant period during the rounds and here they are below. They were posted at the Critical Hit: Comics and Games page.

Our local game store owner of Pro Reis place and tournament organizer Rei has initially transacted with the manager of City Times Square on the plan to hold a Magic: the Gathering tournament on the weekend of the Dinagyang celebration. This is to coincide with a hobbies convention event that is scheduled for that weekend.

Just this week, Rei has finalized the details of the two-day event and shared it to me for posting at the MTG Iloilo Groups and Facebook page of the Magic Iloilo Community. Here it is below.

Saturday (01-26-2019), 2:00pm at the City Time Square:
Standard format, 100 reg.
Prize pool total +5 RNA boosters, all participants will receive a Simic Ascendancy promo card.

Sunday (01-27-2019), 2:00pm at the City Time Square:
Modern format, 100 reg.
Prize pool total +5 RNA boosters, all participants will receive a Simic Ascendancy promo card.

See you there geists!

*header image source: Iloilo Metropolitan Times